Sumba
A Dry Savannah Island Where The Marapu Religion Still Governs Daily Life, The Dead Are Buried Under Megalithic Stone Slabs, And Pasola Is Fought On Horseback With Spears · Waingapu, East Nusa Tenggara
Sumba is dry where Bali is green - open savannah, limestone hills and empty white beaches - and it is one of the few places in Indonesia where an indigenous religion is still the majority practice rather than a memory. MARAPU governs the calendar, the architecture and the dead: villages of tall peaked houses cluster on hilltops around plazas of MEGALITHIC STONE TOMBS, slabs weighing tonnes that are still being quarried, dragged and raised today. EACH FEBRUARY OR MARCH, TIED TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE NYALE SEA WORMS, COMES PASOLA - a ritual battle in which mounted men hurl wooden spears at each other, because blood spilled on the ground is held to feed the harvest. PEOPLE ARE INJURED AND OCCASIONALLY KILLED. Sumba also holds one of the most expensive hotels in the world, a short drive from villages without running water, and the island makes no attempt to resolve that tension for you. It is an hour's flight from Bali and almost nobody goes.
Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Waingapu, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
REACHED BY AIR - TAMBOLAKA in the west and WAINGAPU in the east both have flights from BALI AND KUPANG, roughly an hour from Denpasar. There is also a ferry from Flores and Sumbawa. THE ISLAND IS LARGE AND THE ROADS ARE SLOW; east and west are three to four hours apart and most visitors pick one. VILLAGES ARE LIVED IN, NOT OPEN SITES - you arrive, you are received, and A CONTRIBUTION IS EXPECTED, customarily betel nut as well as money. Take a local guide. PASOLA FALLS IN FEBRUARY OR MARCH depending on the nyale worms and the village, and THE DATE IS SET BY PRIESTS RATHER THAN A CALENDAR - it cannot be booked far ahead with certainty. Funerals and tomb-raisings are major events and are not performances.